Montana History, Geography, Population, State Facts

The Treasure State

Great Seal of the State of
Montana

Adopted on February 9, 1865.

Montana's first official symbol, its seal, has had a
fascinating history. A Montana Territory legislative
committee initially designed a seal in 1865. Francis M.
Thompson chaired the committee and had what passed for
expertise in the seal design business. He had engraved seals
for the first mining districts on the ends of ax handles.
Even he had to admit his work was not the most artistic, but
it was the best at hand.

First explored for France by François and Louis-Joseph Verendrye in the early
1740s, much of the region was acquired by the U.S. from France as part of the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Before western Montana was obtained from Great Britain
in the Oregon Treaty of 1846, American trading posts and forts had been established
in the territory.

The major Indian Wars (18671877) included the famous 1876 Battle of the Little
Big Horn, better known as Custer's Last Stand, in which Cheyenne and
Sioux defeated George A. Custer and more than 200 of his men in southeast Montana.

Much of Montana's early history was concerned with mining, with copper, lead, zinc,
silver, coal, and oil as principal products. Butte is the center of the area that
once supplied half of the U.S. copper.

State Parks: Montana
Boating, fishing, hunting, canoeing, hiking, or sailing in a Montana state
park.| Grizzly &
Wolf Discovery Center Bear and Wolf Preserve. You'll see wildlife as you've
never seen it, with an up close view of live grizzly bears and a pack of gray
wolves.